Per channa's suggestion, I called today and put a reservation on hold. I snagged a pretty good itinerary, but have some questions. All flights are on Delta birds, and I managed to get a First/BusinessFirst reservation for the standard award price of 70k miles, plus about $60 in fees (most due in cash at UIO on departure! )

3/8 OAK-ATL-UIO. 6:40am - 10:00pm (12:20 travel time)
3/13 UIO-ATL-OAK. 10:55pm - 12:10pm (16:15 travel time)

Questions:

I booked First/BusinessFirst, but when I look at my reservation on CO.com, it shows class "International Business (R)" for both transcon legs, but "Coach (O)" for the international legs. However, all of my seat reservations are 2B. When I look at these tickets on Delta.com, the first class cabin shows 2B (alone) reserved on all 4 flights. What gives? Is this a guaranteed FC situation, or a potential downgrade? I'll ask CO about this tomorrow of course, but am curious to hear what you FTers know.

I would prefer the 3/12 return flight, or a 3/13 flight early in the morning. What are the chances something like this will open up before the trip? (CO says no go right now). I see Delta shows 4 FC seats booked for the 3/12 UIO-ATL flight. I don't know what class they are, but perhaps one of them is "the" reward seat for this flight?

Finally, the ATL-UIO leg is a 5h 30m flight. UIO-ATL is 9h 05m! What's with the 3.5 hour difference on a north/south route? The long flight departs at 11pm, so it's kind of nice to arrive at 8am instead of 4:30am. Is that why? So they just throttle back? Fly a less crowded route?

Thanks again for everyone's help and insight!